About Life’s Abundance Dog Food

So I’m occasionally asked if we require our puppy buyers to feed Life’s Abundance. The answer is a resounding NO! The following is my personal opinion. We recommend you do your own research and label reading to decide if you agree.

First of all, we don’t require the new families of our Bernedoodles and/or Australian Mountain Doodles to feed any specific food. We strongly recommend they keep feeding their puppies the food they went home eating. This is to minimize stomach upset which can happen during times of stress (like traveling to a new home) and when switching foods. And we hope our puppy families will opt to feed their Doodles even fresher, better options going forward.

Secondly, Life’s Abundance Dog Food doesn’t meet my requirements for a quality, low carbohydrate, high protein food.  We have fairly strong opinions about feeding the best food you can afford to feed your pet. This will pay off in terms of the health of your dog, it’s longevity and fewer vet visits. We don’t think we should benefit financially from that decision.

But let’s take a look at what this food is about to further understand it.

Life’s Abundance is a multi-level marketing company that was created in 1998 by Dennis and Carol Berardi in Florida. They began by offering products for people and partnered with a holistic veterinarian to formulate a line of pet foods. 

Their home office is still located in Florida. The pet products are manufactured by Ohio Pet Foods. Their Life’s Abundance dog food and pet products are sold through direct sales marketing or on their website.  

This company is considered a multi-level marketing company and its representatives (salespeople) are incentivized to sell the product and to recruit new representatives under them to also sell the product. When you are purchasing through a rep, they are getting a percentage of that purchase. Without getting into too much detail on their marketing model, it is clearly different than a traditional dog food manufacturer selling retail to consumers.

But sales model aside, is it a good food?

Life’s Abundance recipes average 27% protein and 35% carbohydrate. A higher percentage of carbohydrate than we like to see but lower than many dry kibble brands.

They do not provide any information on the sourcing or the quality of their ingredients. I would prefer to see more transparency about this.  

There are a lot of added vitamins and minerals that have been added to meet AAFCO standards. Often when ingredients are excessively processed or nutritionally inferior, additional vitamins and minerals need to be added. Unfortunately they are then less bio-available to our dogs.

Tomato pomace and dried beet pulp are included for fiber. These are questionable ingredients that are considered waste by-products from commercial manufacturers of human-grade food products. They’re used for fiber in dog food but there are whole food ingredients that would serve the same purpose and contribute other nutrients.  

Starches are high on the ingredient list and include peas, potatoes, chickpeas, sweet potatoes, oats, rice, sorghum and barley. Starches and grains contribute to inflammation which can lead to skin issues and sensitivities in our pets.

There seems to be a lot of ingredient splitting going on also. This is a tactic whereby the manufacturer divides lentils, potatoes etc. into more specific terms so that they can be listed as separate ingredients. If they were to be combined (correctly)into one category, they would almost certainly be higher on the ingredient list.

Dogs don’t require carbohydrates however the starch is necessary for the extrusion process in dry foods. Unfortunately high carbohydrate foods can raise insulin and contribute to obesity and problems with gut bacteria. Carbohydrates are often used to reduce manufacturing costs. In addition, crops like lentils, chickpeas, peas, barley and oats are heavily sprayed with herbicides like Roundup and are known to contain higher pesticide/herbicide residue. Residue that ends up in our dogs.

I’m also not a fan of sunflower oil which is not a quality oil as it is usually highly processed and inflammatory.

It should be noted that ALL kibble is going to be ultra-processed. The processing of ingredients for dry food requires them to be exposed multiple times to high heat. The natural vitamins, enzymes, amino acids and nutrients can’t survive the high heat processing and ultimately you are left with a less than nutritious meal.

 My recommendation is to look for a better option.